What does link building look like in 2016?

Building links has been a hot topic for a very long time now. How do you link your website to others with content that is similar to yours or something you want your readers to check out? It is a very simple task, but only if you know what you are doing. Building links to your website is a time-tested technique that has proven to be extremely great when it comes to promotion of websites. In this world where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) decides who will be successful and who will not, online visibility is of great importance.

How does link building benefit you?

You might be wondering how link building is still surviving or whether it actually is still in existence. Link building is a real activity that is still going strong. There are many benefits that it has to offer those who utilize it. Some of these benefits include:

It will boost your search visibility considerably

Increases brand exposure effortlessly

It complements other online marketing strategies

Can help create and propagate new relationships

Sends positive signals to search engines like Google and can help enhance a poor backlink profile

These are just some of the very many benefits that you can look forward to when you start link building. However, as aforementioned, this is an activity that should be left to people who know exactly what they are doing. In 2016, link building goes to a whole new level. There are just so many things that need to be done in order to achieve effective and efficient link building.

Techniques being employed in 2016

There are link building techniques that have been used since time immemorial and they are still being employed. In 2016 some of these methods continue to be even more complex. They include:

Guest blogging

In 2016, people seem to be guest blogging on overdrive. This is because it has proven to be such a fantastic way to create links. There are some forms of guest blogging that simply are not trustworthy at all. These have caught the attention of Google and algorithms are being improved to make sure that they are weeded out. Google is currently penalizing spammy guest blogging, so you need to be extremely careful with this technique.

There is the genuine side to guest blog posts. If a website owner or the editor trusts you to create premium quality content, they are not giving you the permission to start targeting backlinks towards your site. Instead, they trust you to give their readers content that they will enjoy. You may be entitled to a link if you have a byline or some opportunity to mention other articles that you have created. The worst thing that you can do is create promotional articles and post them on someone else’s blog. It is very rude. You only link to your site to improve the clarity of the content that you are creating for the guest blog. Below 3 URL’s will give you the top guest posting sites (niche based).

Petersandeen.com/list-of-guest-blogging-sites

Shoutmeloud.com/list-of-50-best-blogs-that-accept-guest-posts.html

effectivebusinessideas.com/blogs-that-accept-guest-posts

Create infographics

Do people still use infographics? Yes, they are still a very effective way to build links. Infographics are not exactly as efficient as they used to be because they are produced in mass nowadays by any business that has the marketing budget and strategy to do it. Nonetheless, infographics can still earn really good backlinks. They might not be in the thousands as back in the day, but still they are great results. Below URL will give you best 100 infographic submission sites (paid/unpaid).

Social media is the ruler on the internet. There are all sorts of social sites and each of them has some profitability that they bring to your site. In marketing, the goal is to get to the people and what better way to do that than through social media? The likes of Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, Tumblr and so forth are making businesses and websites of all kinds grow tremendously. However, you need to know how to make use of the social media sites.

Post on all the social media platforms you are a member of

Post at the right time when people are online. This is often between the hours of 6am to 8am, lunch hours (noon to around 2pm) and from 5pm to 9pm. These are the best times to post your links on social media. People are not in class or the office at this time so they have time to catch up on the latest online goings-on

Get accounts on the social media platforms that you have not joined yet such as Reddit, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn (it is not just for professionals)

Share other people’s content on social media as well. They will feel obliged to share yours as well

Below URL will give you top social networking sites in Aug-2016.

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites

Ask for links

This will help you get good links to connect to your site. It does not mean beg for links or trade them. For instance, when you create an article and cite a particular company, you can send them a message like: ‘Hi, I just cited one of your articles in [insert link here]. Do you think it will interest your readers?’ It is a really subtle way to ask for the links. It is not begging and it is not trading and it is that simple.

Below URL is example of database site, which accepts the related links which is helpful for their readers.

This is a slow method but it does work, excellently. You can speak at conferences, helping people, guest blogging, getting press coverage and fighting for a cause like cancer, discrimination (on your site). Of course, the content you are posting must be of great quality so that people will want to check it out and link back to you.

Conclusion:

2016 brings with it a whole new lot of link building techniques but then it is the traditional methods that still rule the platform. In as much as earning links is very laborious, it is a crucial activity for blogs to engage in. It is not possible to have a top-ranking site without generating those top-notch quality links. The above are just some of the easiest and most popular techniques that are employed. As mentioned several times in this article, always exercise caution with whichever method you are using.